All summer, this mantis (or a series of sibs) watched over the house-building process. Earlier this month, I took some pictures, then turned her loose. The next day, we noticed her walking deliberately up edge of the roof. When she reached the peak she paused, facing out over the yard as if surveying her territory. She would have made a great gargoyle model. The hard frost we had this week probably was the end of her.
I had never noticed the red coloring on mantis mouthparts before. Lipstick on a mantis? It seems like that conceit is going around. Pit bulls and pigs are cute and cuddly compared to these creatures.
5 comments:
Great detail in your mantis photos -- lipstick and all. I've noticed than mantids more than any other insects tend to stare right back at me when I photograph them.
Great photos, Rebecca! Mantis's are truly weird, like creatures from another planet! How close to the lens were they when you photographed them?
Great shots! You had frost?
Thanks, guys! Larry, I was about a foot away from it; I tried to get closer, but the mantis kept grabbing at the lens. It seemed to do as Marvin said--it focused its attention on the center of the lens and followed it.
Rick, it's been a strangely warm fall, but we have had a few cold nights. We normally have a shorter, colder growing season than your part of West Virginia.
I was just driving home from New Jersey and Preston County had a LOT of snow on the ground.
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